Many owners of motor vehicles are concerned about the appearance of their vehicle. This is very true of owners of new autos and owners of more exclusive autos. A problem particularly of concern is paint finish scratching or marring. Even small scratches or chips in the finish of the auto can materially detract from its appearance and significantly reduce its value. An auto's paint finish can be impaired by an accidental bumping from another auto's door being carelessly opened as often occurs in a public parking lot or by insects or road debris thrown against the auto during travel. The latter is a cause of paint finish scratching, chipping and marring. It is most likely to occur at the front portion of the auto's hood. There is no practical way to avoid the damage. Furthermore, it is difficult to repair a small damaged area. The whole hood most likely will have to be repaired and/or repainted.
Various articles have been developed for use on auto hoods to protect them from insects and road debris damage. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,872,242, 3,022,848, 3,817,572 and 5,039,156 disclose articles which are designed to fit on the front portion of an auto's hood. All suffer in one way or another. Certain of the known articles are unattractive, per se, and actually detract from the auto's appearance. The insect deflector article of U.S. Pat. No. 2,872,242 for example extends vertically from the hood a very noticeable distance. While most likely effective, most auto owners would rather risk the paint finish damage and its consequence appearance detraction than mount the rather bulky article in so conspicuous a location as the hood. Ideally, any protective article for the hood will be noticed only upon close inspection.
All known hood protective articles also appear to be difficult to mount and demount as the need arises. For example, there are times when the auto owner is not particularly concerned with insects and road debris. Thus, low speed driving is less likely to cause a problem. The auto owner may want to remove any hood protective shield at such time. There are other times when paint damage is much more likely to occur. Ideally, any hood protective shield will be readily mounted and demounted as need dictates. It is particularly important that any mounting means be secure, yet be semi-permanent in nature. Most importantly, no physical alteration of the auto should be needed to install the shield. This generally means that no external attaching means such as screws or bolts and nuts be used in the installation.
In accord with a long felt need experienced by many auto owners, there has now been developed a hood protective shield for use on a motor vehicle. The shield is virtually unnoticeable and does not detract from the vehicle's appearance. It is mounted to the hood of the vehicle in a semi-permanent, though secure fashion.